Posted
by
CowboyNeal
on Thursday November 09, 2006 @09:38PM
from the long-range-storage dept.

Lucas123 writes "Computerworld has an article about how consumers, home offices and company branch offices can use microwave, free space optics, WiMax, and a new Wireless USB protocol to backup and access data over short and long distances. The story says that wireless USB can be used to transmit data from one to 10 feet from a PC or laptop at up to 480Mbps, while microwave and WiMax can be used to transmit data securely over miles. Steinbach Credit Union Inc., in Canada, has been using microwave and an IP network for years to backup data to a disaster recovery site 32 miles away, the story states."

In theory, WiMax could be used to send backups to a remote storage facility "miles away" -- providing that there is a WiMax network that is actually in operation. But outside of select areas in select cities (like in Canada), where is this WiMax network of which the author speaks?

I assume you don't have much hands on experience with Bluetooth? I think that in this day and age it is about time we get a short range wireless protocol that doesn't require resetting your computer at least once a day.

480 burst... i have NEVER seen usb actually get any where close to a rate of 480mb/s or anywhere close to that (100 mb/s but thats about the max)... on the otherhand i have seen firewire work at 350mb/s on a chain to the last device on the chain...

480 burst... i have NEVER seen usb actually get any where close to a rate of 480mb/s or anywhere close to that (100 mb/s but thats about the max)... on the otherhand i have seen firewire work at 350mb/s on a chain to the last device on the chain...

Hence the reason Firewire is universally applauded by people do digital audio editing/mixing/composing while USB 2.0 hasn't made any significant inroads. Also one of the main reasons why audio guys use Macs: all Macs have Firewire standard. Most other PCs don't

Why do we need wireless USB when we already have bluetooth? and vice versa? and beyond that, why do we need wireless HDMI?
Try to put your questions into perspective here. Why do we need USB when we have perfectly good parrallel cables? Why do we need DVDs when we have perfectly good CDs? Why do we need laptops when we already have desktops? Why do we need refridgerators when we have already have iceboxes? Why do we need washing machines when we have perfectly good wash-boards? Why do we need cars wh

Figure out a protocol and stick with it. That's why regular plug-in USB works so well.

So presumably we should all still be using RS232 for everything?

Apart from the obvious advances in technology which make protocols obsolete, different protocols are better for different tasks. In general there is a trade-off between high bandwidth and low latency. There is also cost versus performance to consider, and performance versus flexibility. USB, for example, is great for what it was designed for - a low co

I want wireless USB because then I can have a USB hub attached to it, and get rid of lots of unsightly wires. E.g. it would be nice to run the USB digital TV adapter over the other side of the room where the TV socket is. Or to put the printer in a more convenient location. Or even better, have the midi interface next to my disklavier in the living room, but receive the data upstairs in my studio. And no, there are no suitable bluetooth devices for most of these things.

Actually, this might be very cool. I'm sitting here downstairs on my laptop. I just backed up today's work on an SD card in the machine (Umm, that would be Drive F: because the elves at HP put in a @#$! partition they didn't tell me about.), and then on a USB drive connected to the machine (That would be Drive G:). It would be dandy if I could set up a simple wireless USB drive upstairs and zap this stuff up there to H:\HOME as well. No fuss remote backup, not quite off-site, but Hey! I'm retired; I don't get out much. I know I could "go thru the network" on a mapped network drive" but what if the other machines aren't on? Green power and all that. And I know it might be cool to send it to Mongolia or Google, but the fact is I don't quite trust my stuff in those places. So if it were cheap and simple, I'd buy it. At least the way I'm envisioning this (which may be entirely wrong), I could see its use.

Wow, I can't believe Steinbach Credit Union was mentioned on Slashdot. I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada...about an hour from Steinbach, Manitoba. The Steinbach Credit Union is so small, I think it only has like 3 branches in total. Steinbach itself only has a population of approximately 10,000. Further, Steinbach is located in rural Manitoba, known for its Hutterite colonies. Given all that... somehow they're on the bleeding edge of technology? Take that California!

They must be talking about very small backups here. These days it's more common that people have a problem with Gigabit Ethernet with jumbo frames not being fast enough to do backups as quickly as desired. Using megabit speeds for terabytes of data must be a nightmare.

The additional threat of this system is that it suffers from all the sorts of security concerns present with traditional wireless v. wired transfer. Sure, data backup is important, but for a good many (if not most) companies, preserving the integrity of the data is even more critical.Sure, encryption is possible, but heavy encryption may well defeat the point of the speed and ease of the data transfer and backup.

It's also not very convincing to say that, hey, we'll be safe because no one owns the hardware y

Steinbach Credit Union is my home bank, so it was interesting to hear how they set this up back in 2003.

SCU has a second branch located in Winnipeg. Data is constantly synchronized between the two sites providing a physical disaster recovery solution and a convenience for customers, as loan information, etc is always up-to-date so it doesn't matter which branch you visit. (People from Steinbach often visit Winnipeg for shopping and movies). As opposed to paying $70,000 per month for 3rd party leased lines

Why do we need wireless USB when we already have bluetooth? and vice versa? and beyond that, why do we need wireless HDMI?

Bluetooth is great, but it has it's limitations. It was designed to be a low power usage protocol for wireless devices such as mobile phones. It is great for small amounts of data transmission, such as with bluetooth headsets, GPS, mice, or keyboards. However, as soon as you try to send a few MB of data it starts to become unbearably slow. Most devices use bluetooth 1.2 which has a max

Is a wireless USB device still a USB device the answer is yes, except that instead of using a cable, it is a wireless conenction. The computer still utilizes the USB drivers/software stack except that at the lowest levels instead of cabling, its wireless. Existing USB devices and PCs can be retrofitted with a small USB wireless transcivever that plugs into a USB port, likewise, an existing USB device (Printer, camera, external disk, etc.) can also be adapted for use with USB Wireless. Moving forward, look f

User 956
Why do we need wireless USB when we already have bluetooth? and vice versa? and beyond that, why do we need wireless HDMI?

Starting out with HDMI, why does a DVD player have to be close to the TV? Why is is stacked on top of a TiVo
a Satellite reciever next to a playstation and an XBox, wouldn't it be nice to have all that clutter
sitting in one corner of the room and have the TV hanging on a wall somewhere else.

I looked into using license-free microwave and radio for doing backup. It was amazingly inexpensive. You can get BOTH ends of a 48mbps link for a couple grand. There are a lot of possibilities with this technology too. You can share the cost of bringing fiber into a building with the buildings nearby. I evaluated this product a few months back, looks like the price went up just a bit so I'd shop around: FibeAir 4800 [meridianmicrowave.com].

I always wondered if it would someday be possible to set up a free online p2p backup solution (with encryption obviously). The scheme I envision is one where you are graded by the system on your availability for restores, and the more available you are the more often you can backup to the system. Also, the more of your HDD you set aside for other people to backup to, the more volume of data you can backup to the system.